Despite all the significant changes to the roster and the signing of defenseman Mike Green to a new contract, the biggest move GM George McPhee made this summer might’ve been hiring head coach Adam Oates.

Washington’s transformation from run-and-gun to collapse-and-block since its shock first-round elimination at the hands of the Canadiens two years ago has been nothing short of remarkable. The Caps scored just 222 goals last season, 60 fewer than league-leading Pittsburgh. That compares to the 318 Washington racked up in 2009-10 under head coach Bruce Boudreau, who was fired in November and replaced by Dale Hunter.

Hunter promised the Caps would be “really responsible defensively” and delivered on that promise. In the playoffs, Washington managed to score just over two goals per game, yet with a game plan that saw Alex Ovechkin riding the pine when the team held the slightest of leads, fell one win short of advancing to the conference finals.

Looking forward

There’s not a whole lot more McPhee absolutely has to do before the season starts, though with ample cap space he could make a move should an opportunity arise.

RFA defenseman John Carlsson still needs to be re-signed, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

McPhee might also look at adding another defenseman for depth and/or a scoring winger to replace Semin.

Have your say

Vote in our poll and let us know what you think of Washington’s 2012-13 outlook in the comments section.

The New York Islanders made a splash on Friday, signing veteran forward Cal Clutterbuck to a five-year, $17.5 million extension — one that carries a $3.5 million average annual cap hit through 2023.

Clutterbuck, 29, has two goals and nine points through 25 games this year, while averaging 15:26 TOI per night (his highest average since joining the Isles four years ago). As per usual, he leads the club in hits — one of the staples of his game — and serves as one of the club’s alternate captains.

This new contract represents a nice raise for the former Minnesota Wild man. His last contract, set to expire in July, was of the four-year, $11 million variety, and carried a $2.75 million cap hit.

This contract also resembles the one GM Garth Snow gave another of the club’s role forwards. This summer, Casey Cizikas signed a five-year, $16.75 million extension — one with a $3.35 million hit — despite the fact he’d never scored more than 30 points in a season, or averaged more than 14 minutes of ice time.

This style of spending — along with splashes made for free agent disappointments Jason Chimera and Andrew Ladd — is sure to raise some questions. The Isles opted not to spend that money on retaining two of their key players from a season ago, Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo, and the club has struggled to find its form through the first quarter of this year.

“We’re not going to give out any numbers now,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said yesterday, per Yahoo Sports. “The cap could range from where it is now to a couple or so million up, but we’re all going to have to focus on what makes the most sense moving forward.”

The salary cap only went up slightly for the current season, from $71.4 million to $73 million. The only slight increase was due to the lower Canadian dollar, which negatively impacted last season’s league revenues by “$100 or 200 million,” Bettman said earlier this year.

The loonie has been holding relatively steady for around half a year. It’s currently worth $0.76 USD and has been helped by the recent oil rally.

A flat salary cap would be bad news for big spenders like the Chicago Blackhawks, who still need to get Artemi Panarin signed to an extension. The Los Angeles Kings could also be forced to make some tough decisions, as they’ve got Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson in need of new deals. Ditto for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have key RFAs in Brian Dumoulin, Justin Schultz, and Conor Sheary.

Henrik Lundqvist has set such a high bar that his 12-8-1 record with a .912 save percentage is cause for great concern these days in New York.

That his backup, Antti Raanta, is 6-1-0 with a .932 save percentage only contributes to that concern, because if Raanta can manage those numbers, what’s Lundqvist’s excuse?

“I feel like I’m tracking the puck well, moving well,” Lundqvist told the Daily News. “It just comes down to some bad decisions at times that cost me.”

Indeed, December has not started well for The King. He’s allowed 10 goals in three starts for a save percentage of .894. In Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Islanders, his decision to poke check a loose puck led to the winning goal by Andrew Ladd.